YKPK publicly supports Try for president

JAKARTA (JP): The National Brotherhood Foundation (YKPK) announced yesterday its preference to see Vice President Try Sutrisno nominated for president.

The chairman of the nationalist-oriented foundation, Bambang Triantoro, told journalists that Try was the most experienced and acceptable person to succeed President Soeharto.

"We have no other choices but Try Sutrisno, because he is very close to Pak Harto. Try is a statesman with experience and a flawless record and, as far as we know, is open to ideas and arguments," Bambang said after a meeting with leaders of the Golkar faction in the People's Consultative Assembly.

"Those characteristics fit the requirements for our future president, who will have to heed advice from others because he would not be able to cope with the country's uphill challenges in the coming years alone," he added.

The foundation's announcement came a week after it demanded all five factions in the Assembly not to "force" the 76-year-old Soeharto to accept renomination for another five-year term.

Bambang said YKPK, which consists of retired military officers, politicians and other public figures, presented a formal statement of its support for Try to the Assembly which will elect a president and vice president in March.

Bambang, a former Armed Forces chief of sociopolitical affairs, said Soeharto should maintain his chief position in Golkar's powerful board of patrons to keep the government running on the right track.

Try, whose military career has seen him as an aide to Soeharto and the Armed Forces chief, had a greater chance to take over the presidential job from Soeharto, compared to Megawati Soekarnoputri or any other candidates, according to Bambang.

Megawati, the ousted chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party and daughter of Indonesia's first president Sukarno, declared her readiness to be nominated for the post last weekend.

"I highly appreciate Megawati's announcement as a courageous move to break the country's long-time political stagnation, but let's talk about real politics," Bambang said.

Armed Forces spokesman, Brig. Gen. A. Wahab Mokodongan, when asked to comment on YKPK's statement concerning Try, said yesterday that everybody was free to announce their support for potential presidential or vice presidential candidates.

"The people may announce their support for as many possible nominees as they want, even 100 candidates," he told reporters after a meeting with chief Indonesian media editors at the Armed Forces Merdeka Barat headquarters.

But he said the announcements of support must follow established procedures and not go against the constitution and the existing mechanism.

Asked about whom the Armed Forces would nominate as a candidate, Wahab said it would only forward one name and that it would wait to announce its candidate until the Assembly's general session in March.

Commenting on the increasing calls for fundamental reforms as an answer to the prolonged monetary crisis, Wahab retorted saying it was not in the "vocabulary" of the Indonesian people.

"If your shirt only needs to be shortened in the sleeves to make it more comfortable, why should you take it off and burn it just to make yourself satisfied," he remarked.

"If the government has weaknesses, we cannot blame them on the government as an entity," he said. "There might be only some officials in the government who have made mistakes."

"We, therefore, cannot say that the whole government must be replaced," he argued. (imn/amd)